knitting continues but it’s not my choice of project

Firstly, welcome to all my new followers; many of whom have started following since March when I wrote my last post. I hope you’ll stick around but I’ll understand if you don’t; my posts are very sporadic due to the turn my life has taken.

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As long-term followers would know, I have given up knitting in yarns that I don’t like the feel of – acrylic being top of the list. I am not a yarn snob but I’ve decided life is just too short (and my stash is too big) to knit with yarns that I don’t like. Some acrylics are very soft; for example, the new “Stallion” yarn from Spotlight is lovely and soft but an 8ply (DK) it is not! However, most of the acrylics I have worked with over the years are quite harsh and have a very plasticky feel; which, I have to admit,  I didn’t notice until I started working in wool or sock yarn more frequently!  At Easter, I still had quite a bit of acrylic yarn in my stash but was slowly getting rid of it by sending it home with DD each time she came to visit!

I had also given up knitting blankets in favour of smaller projects. A blanket can warm only one person but the yarn used (about 1 kilogram) can be used to knit beanies, fingerless mitts and scarves, thereby keeping several people warm. I have nothing against knitting blankets; it’s just not what I choose to do with my time. I prefer to knit socks or to challenge myself with a new pattern or technique.

Then mum came to live with us; we thought it would be for a few weeks but we were naive about how long the process of getting someone into an aged care facility takes!

She had not knitted for a couple of years but her interest was renewed when she saw me knitting. That would be fine but she can’t remember how to cast on or cast off; and she can’t fix her problems if she drops a stitch. Even if she accidentally creates a stitch (I still haven't figured out how she’s doing it) then gets towards the end of the row, she doesn’t know what to do with the extra stitch (or stitches) at the end of the row. If she started with fifty stitches and there are now 51, she just goes to pieces.

There is no concept of “wait” and if I ask her too, she gets all huffy. Then she stands over me until I’ve dealt with the issue and sometimes that means unpicking several rows of very tight knitting!

Anyway, you get the picture. Despite all that, mum’s output is more than I can keep up with. Firstly, I have had to buy more straight needles and acrylic to keep her in knitting supplies! *sigh*

Since she came to live with us, eighteen weeks ago, she has knitted squares for one blanket (I spent much of my recent holiday/vacation sewing blanket squares together) and enough strips (I’m not sewing squares any more!) for three full blankets and is currently working on the final strips for the fifth blanket (she knits two strips alternately so that she always has knitting ready to go).

I now use all the time I would normally spend on my own knitting projects (plus some) making sure she has knitting to go, ripping back where there are too many rows in a strip and knitting strips together to make blankets! Apart from the leg of one sock, I have not had time to knit my own projects. So much for the cardigan I was going to make for myself to wear in spring (starts Speedometer here in Australia)!

I could knit during the day while she’s busy knitting, but I’m making quilts or doing family history.

Anyway, enough; this post sounds like I’m complaining …. I intended it to be a post to show what mum is up to and to let you know that I am, indeed, still in the craft world.

So, here we go...

the blanket made from squares which I sewed together (tricky when the “squares” are all different sizes and tensions):

 

and the blanket made from strips which I knitted together and grafted by the no-sew-method taught by Galena Khmeleva in her Orenberg lace workshops.

  

Both photos were taken from the front deck of the house we rented for ten days’ holiday/vacation in June. (It was supposed to be a holiday but planning, shopping and cooking – even with assistance - for eight people every night is not a holiday for me!)

I was going to show you the pile of strips but it’s uninteresting so you’ll have to wait until the strips become blankets! 

In my next post I’ll show you the quilting projects I have finished since March. Expect the post on either Friday or Saturday when I link up with Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday.

Until then; may your stitches bring you much joy!

works in progress

A couple of days ago I was working in my sewing room and thinking about all the different projects I had going on so it seemed time to share them.

I describe a WIP as anything I have worked on in the last three months. With the exception of the Hearts quilt,  every project I will share with you today has been worked on in the last four weeks.

Why don't I start with my knitting projects? That is how this blog started after all!

The older of the two knitting WiPs is a pair of socks I cast on in October. I knitted the first sock to the heel turning then stopped -- turning heels requires concentration which, for me, means solitude. Last weekend, as I waited for the workshop I was tutoring to start, I began turning the heels (and put them away when I got to the part where concentration was really needed). For those who care about such things, I use an hourglass heel (from Lynne Vogel's Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook) as my "go to" heel. It was the first heel I learned to make and, even though it was difficult to teach in my workshop in 2012, is still the heel I prefer to knit.

 

My other knitting project, which was started on Christmas Eve and is now too big to work on in the current hot, humid weather, is my own design. I've called it Nouveaux Log Cabin. It was inspired by the Moderne Baby Blanket (from "Mason-Dixon Knitting" by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne). It is based on Fibonacci numbers, given that each section is based on the numbers 1, 2 or 3 -- 1 being fifteen garter stitch ridges. The finished blanket should be approximately 72" x 42". I have worked the sections out to get these dimensions and have the same number of sections across the blanket as down its length.  I particularly like the look of the one garter ridge done in white at the beginning of each section.

I have worked on three different quilting projects in the past four weeks; four in the past three months.

The Hearts quilt is the only project in this post that I haven't touched in the last four weeks. I need to make a decision about how I'm going to quilt it and get to it! It remains 30 disconnected blocks.

The project that has had the most attention this week is Violet and Friends quilt. I made the crumb blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (SoScrappy blog) during 2011 and 2012 but only started putting the blocks together into a quilt top last month.

This week I have been working on making the backing. It never ceases to amaze me how much time it takes to press fabric, cut strips, join strips, press seams, pin strips to blocks, sew strips to blocks and press seams. It took me all my sewing time on Tuesday (several hours) to do the above (and press the whole flimsy now that I have a new iron which gets hot enough to do the job properly!) and all I added were four 2” white borders to the flimsy seen above, and two long strips to the backing panel.

In class last week, I finished a block for the Sampler Quilt I've been making (on and off) for a year. It took me the better part of three hours to finish about half a block! I'm not the world's fastest patch-worker, that's for sure! This block is called Weathervane. It looks very tricky but really, it's just a fancy nine-patch (as are all the blocks in the sampler some of which you can see here).

My newest project in terms of deciding what to do is really the first of these four to have got started. Back in 2011, before I started classes with my current teacher, DD and I used to attend all-day Saturday classes once a month. At one of these workshops, I learned several ways to make half square triangles (I documented it here and here). when I read about the Relaxing Robin (SewUQuilt2 blog), I decided to make one of these orphan blocks my Relaxing Robin project. I won't go into too much detail here, this will get its own post later this month.

I have one hand-stitching WiP – my Dutch Cap Hexies. This is a very long term project given these are 1.5” hexies and diamonds I’m sewing together. This is what I’ve done so far (not the final layout):

 

I have a pile of “hexie triads” ready to go, and over the last few days have basted all these diamonds (I’ve run out of papers so I have to wait for LQS to get some more). Plenty of sewing to be going on with.

Finally, my newest baby, brought into the world on 12 February: when finished it will be a large pin cushion done in candlewicking using colonial knots and some stem stitch on homespun with perle cotton.

What about you?

What projects are you working on?

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced blog and Yarn Along at Small Things blog.

Edited to add that I am also linking up to Hexie Weekend at a Quilting Reader's Garden blog.

I have also joined the EPP QAL group on Flickr. 

Something Old, Something New -- part II (with button and grab code)

Note: This post is almost identical to the information in the tab at the top of this blog so you may have already read it. Please leave a comment if you're thinking of joining the party! ;-)
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Nearly all the crafts-people I know are like me. We all have UFOs that we "should" be working on but the lure of the new beckons us.

In 2014, I want to concentrate on learning new techniques across many of the crafts in which I am involved. However I also want to get some of those UFOs out of my craft room and into use.

Hence: Something Old, Something New. I am challenging myself to finish (at least) one UFO a month and, at the same time, learn (at least) one new technique a month.

How do I define UFO? Any project I haven't worked on in the last three months is a UFO. If I've done some work on it in the last ninety days, it's a WiP and doesn't really qualify! But that's the boundaries I've set myself. You can set any boundaries/rules/guidelines -- whatever works for you!

Maybe you are unlike me and have no UFOs but would like to learn some new techniques.
Or maybe you've dozens of UFOs and no plan (right now) to learn new techniques -- you just want to get those UFOs done!

You've come to the right place.
For me it will be "old" and "new" but for you it might be either "old" or "new".

Won't you please consider joining me for this year's challenge?   
Any craft, any project, any technique is welcome.

I'll put up a linky party on the second day of each month (there are many other linky parties happening on the first of the month! LOL). In that post, I will share my progress from the previous month and list my goals for the month to come.

There will be no prizes, no give-aways; just the joy of sharing and perhaps meeting some new blog friends. 

I'd love you to join me -- parties are much more fun when other people come along! Here's the button for your blog if you accept my invitation!

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<br /><a href="http://2hot2knit.blogspot.com.au/" title="Never too hot to Stitch!"><img src="http://i1286.photobucket.com/albums/a607/ellebee57/85d98e30-e984-4b34-925f-027fc19b8dc5_zps40bbf708.jpg" alt="Never too hot to Stitch!" style="border:none;" /></a></div>
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still here, still searching, still crafting (a little) – only a little doped!

Family history research is a very absorbing hobby – absorbing of one’s time, that is!

In the past couple of months, I have added over 400 people to my extended family. I try to include the parents and siblings of all my blood relatives’ spouses. Families with ten or more children are not uncommon among the working class from which my ancestors come so the numbers add up quickly.

So, if you’ve been wondering why I’m not reading and commenting on your blog – or writing my own – my computer time is almost totally devoted to family history research these days!

I’m not one for resolutions (and it’s not New Year) but some self-discipline is called for and I am now going to limit my time spent on family history research each day. I have friends who deserve my attention, followers that expect somewhat regular posts and craft projects that need my attention.
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There are photos coming but they have all been taken with my iPad so I apologise in advance for the quality!

Ah, shingles; yes, I was diagnosed with that mysterious virus four weeks ago. I spent the first week doped up so high I couldn’t walk a straight line. I was taking anti-viral medication and a daily dose of125mg of heavy-duty pain-killers (pregabalin for those who need to know such things) for post-herpetic neuralgia. But the good news is that the rash has almost completely disappeared and I am down to 25mg (one capsule) of the pain-killer a day so I’m thinking relatively clearly and almost ready to drive my sewing machine again!

I have been doing some crafting. A week after I was diagnosed I was supposed to teach a workshop on knitting with variegated and hand-painted yarns. I worked diligently through my fog to prepare for that workshop but, alas, it didn't happen; there's no way that I could get my befuddled mind into gear and teach! But samples were made, ripped out and made again.

Why do my mitred squares never come out square? This one will be ripped out!

I even managed to knit a whole dropped-stitch scarf in a commercial variegated acrylic yarn that I’ve dubbed the “brussell sprout” scarf because of the colouring.

In theory, knitting this scarf should have made the blotchy tendencies of this yarn less obvious but, unfortunately, this scarf is still so blotchy the pattern is almost completely obliterated!
 
If it wasn’t acrylic, I’d consider over-dyeing it. I’ve been successful in dying white acrylic yarn but I’m not confident that I can get colours dark enough to overdye this one!  Never mind, the scarf will still make the journey west to Mudgee next week when I tutor a workshop on “knitting with dropped stitches”.

A new project, called the “Mudgee Wrap”, has also been started for the same workshop but there isn’t much to show yet.

I haven’t been courageous (or foolish) enough to use my sewing machine while taking painkillers with that famous warning: “This drug may cause drowsiness. Do not operate machinery.” The idea of sewing through my finger is not at all appealing! But I have paid for classes so attendance is “mandatory”. Bring on the hand stitching…

In the past month I have made quite a few hexagon “triads” from scratch (the photo shows my intended layout although not the final position of the “blocks”)

– which basically means I have drawn and cut hexagons from 4” fabric squares, basted those hexagons and joined them in sets of three to create thirty of these:
  
There has been some humming and hawing over setting these triads but in the end I have decided to go with my original plan and have stuck with my “Dutch cap” shapes which I talked about in this post. In reality, there is quite a lot of fiddling around to create these shapes because each diamond is added separately to the triad then the diamonds are joined together.

So far I have made only one. I hope it will get easier with experience, otherwise I’ll be ripping them all out and looking for an easier setting!

So that’s my last four weeks summed up. Not much to show for it but I am supposed to be taking it easy and concentrating on getting better. The thing is that I just don’t feel “sick” and most of the time forget that I have been ill.

Onwards and upwards, as they say! In other words, back to my Mudgee Wrap which I ambitiously hope to finish in one week!

Where, oh where, can she be?

Hello. I’m still here. Just quiet on the blogging front.

Well, except for the hours I have spent reading through the 500+ posts I had in my Feedly list when I came home. I have only left comments on a few posts when I had something I really had to say but, for the most part, I have just skim-read and moved on. Some people have suggested that I just skip those missed posts and start afresh but I would hate to miss the post I needed to read! I would feel awful if I missed the news of a joyous or tragic event in my blog-friend’s life! I am now down to 238 posts so I’m getting there! I also have dozens, if not hundreds, of emails that need answers – I will get to those in due course, I hope!

When we got home from our vacation, I had an email from a member of Lost Cousins, a family history site of which I am also a member. That sparked my curiosity about something in my own family history and there I was, off searching around my own ancestry. In those two weeks, I re-established connection with some “lost” cousins and have had some delightful and informative emails from my second cousin in England so have really been distracted from my crafting and other pursuits.

I’ve also found a site called Deceased Online, which doesn’t sound terribly exciting but is a good site to find the location and date of the burial of English ancestors (for free) and further information, like who else is buried in the same grave (for a fee). I have been lucky enough to find a few of my ancestors or blood relatives on the site – they are adding more and more information every month.

I am focussing my attention on one set of my great-grandparents and their descendants. I am working from their eldest child, through their descendants (and so on) and am finding some very interesting (to me) facts. I just love the hunt and the thrill of finding small scraps of information! Some of which leads to other areas of inquiry.

I have sent emails to other members of Genes Reunited who have people with the same names on their tree that I am researching in my own tree and have had quite a few answers – most not relevant but it’s still good to get a reply.

I have used another site called Curious Fox (a site for ancestors in Britain and Ireland but you need to know where they lived specifically) and had some answers with some new information which, as I’ve already said, is very exciting.

There has been some crafting. I have been working on some hand-stitching which I have now dubbed the “Dutch Cap” quilt because of the shape of the paper-piecing I have designed.

Since I started cutting out hexagons on the train trip home, I have achieved this much (22 “triads”)!

My sewing machine was serviced while I was away but I have not yet taken it out of its case! I need to do so soon if I am going to have the binding sewn on the Earth and Sky quilt before the end of the month! I also need to do a small amount of sewing on another project so I can call it finished too!
There has been some knitting but I’ll leave that for a separate post.

So, don’t write me off – I’m still here, and The Year of the Finished Project linky party is still alive and well.

I’ll be back soon with the promised knitting post!

Home again!

We arrived to a cold, wet, miserable day in Sydney. Our train was 45 minutes late getting into the terminal but we didn't have too long to wait for a suburban train to take us home. MIL was waiting for us at the station which was lovely. We had lunch together then she left, WM went to get the cat from the boarding kennel and I unpacked! Isn't that the worst part of arriving home?

Last night WM and I worked on our travel blog (you can find it over here if you'd like to see some of our photos). We are one day away from having it completely finished!

I did work on my hexie project on the train but didn't do anywhere near as much as I expected. This was partly because the lighting wasn't strong enough for me to see my stitching, and partly because there were views to watch, meals to eat and excursions to be taken as well as a blog to keep updating! However, it was always meant to be a long term project so I'm not at all concerned -- it is ready to go any time I have  the urge for some hand-piecing.

The hexie project bag I was working on before I went away is almost finished. In my last class before I went away, I lined the bag and joined the two pieces together with the casing. All it needed was the casing to be hand-stitched down. I took the project away with me but I didn't touch it. It was too difficult to sew in a moving motor-home and I was too tired in the evenings to sew (or do any other form of craft)!

I took three knitting projects with me: yarn and needles for the bed socks mum had asked me to knit, Emily's unfinished baby blanket and an almost-finished pair of socks. The last two projects never saw the light of day! The bed socks are finished but I didn't get them done in time for Beulah's birthday so they are still with me (mum gave Beulah something else). What's that? You want to see them...

Here is one.

They are both finished but I only put one on to take the photo with my iPad. They are knitted cuff down in Moda Vera Marvel (DK) on 3.75mm double-pointed needles to a pattern I modified from Wendy Johnson's Lacy Ribs Socks (Ravelry link). This is the link to my Ravelry page. My modification was to add a rib of mock cabling between the lace; I think the mock cabling should have been done every fourth row instead of every eighth; what do you think?

Anyway, I have four loads of washing to do -- one is on the line (it's a cloudless, mild winter day today), one is in the machine and two are still on the laundry room floor! Then I'd better go and help WM in the garden -- it is overgrown with weeds due to three months of concentrating on the Renovation Project (no, it hasn't rented yet!) followed by our three week absence!

And I still have over 500 blog posts to catch up on! :-(

stitching with one needle

Looking over my last few blog posts, you would think that the only craft I pursued regularly was knitting and that my only other hobby has to do with my iPad!
 It is true that that I use my iPad a lot, every day in fact. Why buy one if not to use it?

It is also true that it would be a rare day if I didn’t knit at some point – usually in the evening while watching television with WM.

I have a knitting deadline which is coming up fairly soon so I am knitting during the day. Technically my deadline is 20 October but I am aiming for 6 October, just one week away. For those who knit or hand-stitch, I am making a dark-coloured item so knitting this particular project under artificial light at night is not an option!

As explained in this post, sewing projects require much more preparation than knitting so when life gets hectic or I'm feeling overwhelmed, knitting is my choice of craft.

However, this post is not about knitting. It’s about works in progress that are being made with one needle.

My current class project is another bag. On Monday I completed the lining.

I’m pleased with the inside although I don't think I’d make those saggy pleated pockets again. This bag won’t stand up by itself so I had to pin it to the lounge and hold it open while I took the photo!

I am away at a conference all this long weekend, but next week I plan to make the outside of the bag and the handle, then on Monday 8 October I can put the two parts together in class.

At Caring Hearts Community Quilters yesterday, I completed one heart and started another.You'll have to look closely on the blue heart, the thread is a really good match! LOL

It was a slow sewing day because we had lots of Show and Tell. More importantly, it was our founder’s 70th birthday so we had a party! Happy birthday, Margaret! Even more excitingly for me, DD was able to attend her first meeting because SIL had the day off and was able to look after the Grand-Boys!

I have prepared my next embroidery project and will get started on it next week (after conference). Because I used a blue marking pen on a white background, I can't show you my preparation. Here is a picture of the pattern sheet.

I have also started another bag project (or maybe two) with these, my first foray into English paper piecing (and includes some fussy cutting):

The hexagon with the pink coloured spots (top left) was tacked by WM – wouldn’t it be fun if we worked on a project together?

And now, even though I’d like to work on my hexies or my embroidery, I need to get back to that “dark” knitting project before the light completely fades with the incoming storm!

Come back on Sunday to see some real-honest-to-goodness machine piecing!

other crafts

A long time ago, when I was a "winter" knitter, I decided I had to find a different craft for summer because it was too hot to knit!

I had tried embroidery which I showed you in this post. I enjoyed it and thought I might do some more of it.

We were going away for a few days because our cork floor tiles were being recoated and the smell of polyurethane is unbearable. We had some long-forgotten reason to visit a local store and, though I looked all over their small craft department, I couldn't find an embroidery kit. However, I did find a small cross stitch kit. Ideal! Everything I needed (except scissors and a hoop) was in the package. It was small so I could work on it in the car and it was inexpensive so if I didn't like it, it was no big deal!

I finished that first cross stitch, framed it with the embroidery hoop I had used to stitch it and gave it to my mum for Mothers' Day. It's still on display in her china cabinet.

But I was hooked! I started making people cross-stitch bookmarks. I bought "waste canvas" and began embroidering on tee-shirts and socks. I bought a couple of kits and worked those. I think people even began to expect that they would receive small cross-stitch embroidery from me for presents.

But then came Big Project #1. DD and I still smile at how I finished it and was washing it in the bath while she stood lookout for Daddy coming home from work. It was his Christmas present and I needed to block it! He loved it.Then my sister got engaged and I began a cross stitch of blue and white crockery on a dresser as a wedding gift. I have no photo of that one to show you but I know it still hangs in my sister's dining room (even though that marriage is long over).

DD was given a cross-stitch for Christmas one year but she outgrew it and we had to take it from her room and hang it in the hall. She says she still loves it (or maybe she has renewed her love for it) so maybe, one day, she'll hang it at her place.Mum's 60th birthday came next and what better thing to give a "new Australian " (she had become a citizen just six years before after living here for thirty one years) - Australian wild flowers! I took this photo over the mantlepiece, way above my head so please forgive the funny angle. The photo below shows some detail (if anyone is interested it is 14 count Aida cloth); the big red flower is called a waratah.It is the floral emblem of my state and grows only in sandy soil. We have clay soil so, unfortunately, have not been successful in growing one (WM dislikes pots). You can read more about waratahs here.

Then mum and dad gave me a pattern for a piano done in cross stitch (yes I do play - badly). I never finished it, I think all that cream (on the left) was just too much for me! It has become one of my many UFOs about the place!
What about you, did you once have an obsession with another craft?

one thing at a time

warning: long wordy post!

It has been a long time since I worked on one craft project at a time as my normal modus operandi.

Way back, when I was a child, my mother bought the materials she needed for a project and worked on that project until it was done.

Understandably, that was the way I was with my knitting!

Like mum, I would knit in winter and when the weather started to warn up, finish the project in hand and that was it - until next winter.

Until someone gave me an embroidery kit. I can't remember who or for what reason; but I clearly remember that, although I had never shown the slightest interest in embroidery, I decided to open that kit and give it a go as a summer project.

I didn't know what I was doing and I didn't know about embroidery hoops - I just did what I always do, read a bit (in this case the instructions in the kit) then got started.

It didn't turn out so bad, if I do say so myself. A couple of summers later, we were going away for a week and I wanted a small project to do in the car. Knitting was out because people don't knit in summer, do they?

I bought a cross stitch kit of some violets. Quick and simple, I was hooked! (Oops no, that would be the small "rug" I made from a kit when I was a teenager - I still have the latch hook; I told you I am a hoarder).

Anyway, that kit led to another, then to bookmarks for gifts and finally to the purchase of large patterns. But, I digress... I think I'll save those for another post!

So, in winter I worked on one knitting project (usually it took all winter to knit one jumper anyway) and in summer I worked on my cross-stitch.

Then, in the early years of this decade, I got involved, briefly, in scrapbooking. It didn't take me long to realise that working on, and buying supplies for, one project at a time was very limiting and I began to collect papers, card stock and embellishments. I didn't know the word "stash" back then - but I still have a stash of scrapbooking supplies (you're not surprised, are you?).

In 2004, I was tired of working from other people's patterns in knitting and cross-stitch, some something deep inside me was trying to get out. I was inspired by the knitted works of Kaffe Fassett, so I decided to design and knit my own jumper (sweater). I started collecting yarn; to quote Kaffe: "if in doubt, add more colour". It took me two winters to finish; it used 63 different yarns and weighs a ton!

Inadvertently, I had started a stash - I had left overs of all 63 balls plus the ones I had decided not to use. I immediately went on to plan my next fassettesque project (which has never been started) and began collecting yet more balls of yarn. At that time, I used only natural fibres - wool, mohair and a little alpaca.

In 2007, I was introduced to the world of knitting blogs and, of course, I just had to have one. But my blogging was infrequent and I mostly only wrote about knitting.

By then, I was a member of knit4charities so buying discounted yarn (usually acrylic) seemed sensible given that I was knitting much more - even into summer!

Reading blogs introduced me to the concept of "stash" (up until then I had leftovers and a collection of yarn for the next project plus some discounted acrylic which would be used soon). But, more importantly, reading blogs introduced me to the radical idea that one could work on more than one project at a time!

And so, dear readers, just like every other knitting blogger I know, I almost always have several projects on the needles.

Last year I stumbled into quilting. DD and I bought too much fabric for our first quilt so we made two quilts from the same fabrics. We made the first quilt top and then cut out the pieces for the second! We had already succumbed to polygamous quilting and had only been involved in this fantastic new world for less than a month!

I'm pretty sure everyone who read and comments here works on multiple projects at once, but were you ever a one-project-at-a-time crafter? When, and why, did things change?

What have we here?

This arrived at my place today. it has just been unpacked from the ute* (pick up truck).

Of course, it wouldn't be any use without this.

A semi-industrial, straight stitching machine!

The former owner has replaced it with a computerised twice-as-large version (she is a professional quilter) so this one has come to live with us (via an online auction site).

Now WM and I have to put it together (when we find a suitable home place for it).

And DD and I have to watch the DVD that goes with it.

Then it will be time for some fun practice!

*ute = abbreviated form of "utility vehicle"

moving on a Friday afternoon*

*hum "Groovin'" by George Benson while reading the title of this post!Warning: This is a long post - you may want a glass/cup of something delicious to get your through!

It goes something like this:

• DD and I somehow get involved in patchworking and take over the dining room as our sewing room. No one can find the dining room table for meals. Because the dining room window looks out onto a covered patio on the south-eastern side of the house, the natural light in the dining room is poor on overcast days (of which we seem to have had quite a few).
• I decide I want to move the sewing machine (which belongs to DD) to "her bedroom" because the natural light in there is much better. DD was married in January 2009 but seems to spend at least one night a week sleeping in her old bed. The rest of the time the room, which is the second largest of our four bedrooms, is completely unused.
• Having made the decision to move the sewing machine and enlisted WM's assistance to move a couple of small pieces of furniture, I realise that we can't use the sewing machine in that room because the cot is also in that room and the most likely time for us to be sewing is when GS#1 is sleeping!
• I suggest we move the cot to WM's office but that idea is soon vetoed!
• DD suggests I move the sewing machine into my study - this is the smallest of our four bedrooms, only 8 x 10 feet, with a built in wardrobe (closet). The room already contains a computer desk, a writing (and crafting) desk, two book shelves, a set of drawers and a three-drawer filing cabinet. The wardrobe is full of knitting yarn and crafting items. The only power outlet already has the computer, printer and modem plugged into it and is almost inaccessible behind the computer desk. There is no way that the sewing machine will fit!
• After further thought, I tentatively suggest to WM that it might be a good idea if I move my study to DD's former bedroom (which is big enough for a double bed) and move the single (twin) bed and cot to my study. WM agrees and later reminds me that he had suggested that when DD left home!
• We move some of the furniture from DD's room - the two chests of drawers and two bookshelves stay but the bed, the bedhead and the cot have to go - as do the contents of the bookshelves and the drawers.
• Suddenly my relatively tidy house looks like a bomb has gone off - there is stuff on the kitchen bench, the breakfast bar, WM's office floor, the sofa bed (also in WM's office), and all up the hall. The family room remains relatively untouched - but only because the "force of nature" (a.k.a. GS#1) has already swept through that room.
• During this chaos is a visit to the hospital to see FIL after he has been moved to his private room and all interventive treatments have been stopped; the last time DD and I saw him before he passed away.
• Back home, with WM still at the hospital, DD, SIL and I try to move furniture (and other detritus of nineteen years of living in the same place), but the major item - the computer desk - can't be moved without WM.
• Late in the evening, around 10pm, SIL goes home - he has to work the following day and needs to go to bed. About half an hour later, GS#1 finally goes to sleep. WM and I determine that the major pieces of furniture have to be moved before we can do likewise. The computer desk finally makes it from the study to DD's old bedroom (henceforth to be known as my "studio"). The bedhead gets moved from WM's office and the bed and it's accompanying drawers get moved from the hallway. Of course, in between all this furniture moving, the vacuum cleaner has to be used!
• We fall into bed around midnight with the kitchen bench and the breakfast bar still covered in books and other items that came off the bookshelves. WM's office still looks like a bomb has gone off but, at last, the major items of furniture are in their new homes. The sewing machine is shifted from the dining room to the studio.
• WM and I go off on holidays with mountains of stuff piled on the floor of my former study and on the sofa bed and floor of WM's office.
• DD sorts through some of her stuff and clears the former study (now the spare bedroom) enough for my mother's visit.

It will take me weeks to sort through all the stuff to be moved or discarded from my old study and who knows how long it will take DD to go though her things (she may not be living with us anymore but her possessions haven't left home!).

But for now, my new studio looks like this (clockwise from the door):

two bookshelves: the one on the left is 60cm (2 feet) the other 90cm (3 feet). The empty spaces show you that I have not yet finished moving books and magazines.


two drawer units: the blue one holds fabric (I already have the beginnings of a stash -how did that happen?), the grey one hold mostly DK weight wool sorted by colour: yellow and brown, green, blue, purple, red and pink


my computer desk - workplace central! To the right you can just see my very old (pre-DD) metal Muppet garbage bin, faded but enjoyed by GS#1 as a drum. The black shape to the right is the back of my chair, facing my work desk.


Perpendicular to my computer desk, under the window, is my desk/sewing table; to the left of the desk was an empty space which currently holds four archive boxes containing yarn, a roll of fusible web and a roll of stabiliser; to the right is a built in wardrobe (closet).
Under the desk, the red box is used to transport our "goods and chattels" to and from the quilting workshops and store things, like a walking foot and a stippling foot. The clear tub holds all the paraphernalia from when DD and I were learning Japanese. I am hoping to find another home for that tub! The black "thing" to the right is the electric cord and foot for the sewing machine!


On the fourth wall are two chests of drawers (back to back) currently with Quilt #2 rolled up and lying on top. As luck would have it, my cutting mat (35 x 23 inches) fits perfectly on top. Now I can access my cutting mat from three sides not two as before when I was using it in the kitchen! The height is still a bit low but WM assures me that he will build a little table to go on top and raise it to a better height (I prefer a working height of about 90cm (3 feet).

I hope you've enjoyed the tour of my new studio; I'll keep you posted with future developments!